Now as a black man and a fan of hip hop and rap, I’m getting bored with it all. Bored of whats portrayed on TV of being black and liking hip hop and rap. Its too predictable I think. Today I walked into my brother’s room and he was watching BET and of course a music video was on. I heard the first three notes and closed my eyes and guessed what would be on the screen when I opened my eyes. Grilled-mouth grown men dressed like color-blind broke cowboys with clothes a few sizes too big bouncing around cars with spinning rims. Did I forget the damn-near naked girls dancing like strippers in a rain of singles?   I couldn’t tell the difference from what I imagined and what was on the screen when I opened my eyes.  Now all the bad morals and negative role modeling being portrayed, I have a problem with the sheer stereotypical irony of it. Stereotypes are supposed to be just that, an exaggerated over the top example of something thats not true.  Instead its just the norm.

I’m torn on the issue though, and would be a hypocrite for me to say that they are wrong for what they do.  We all do things to make money that we wouldn’t do if we didn’t need the money.  For example, when I meet with my clients or go to do work on a computer I’m suited and booted.  In my mind its a social norm to dress and act “professional” when I could do just as good a job in shorts and a t-shirt.  Maybe wearing the rags and sagging pants are just them in uniform to do a job.

On one side I blame them for acting a fool on national tv giving impressionable minds the idea that its alright.  But on the other hand, I do understand that things don’t get popular unless a lot of people like it.   So who is to blame?  Them for parading an image from a bad SNL skit or the millions of people who pay money for it?

What really gets me is the people who see me dressed up and are shocked like I’m supposed to walk in doing the Cupid Shuffle with some shades on.  Now I’m happy and proud of people that have found a way to make a living from nothing but is it really worth an image already painted in people’s heads when you say that you like rap or hip hop on top of being black?